Remember Me
by Aspen Snow
Summary: He trembled, or had she? She couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. That moment had been pure, a crystallized moment in time that belonged solely to them. His eyes, the brilliant golden depths of them had raged. At what she wasn't sure.'
1. Remember Me

**Author's Note: **I am thinking of making this more than just a one shot.  But I'm not sure.  If you like and would like to see it continued send me a review!!  Any input is greatly appreciated!!  I hope you enjoy it!!!!

**Remember Me**

_It's not enough to say I've loved and lost_

No, that would be too easy, too simple.  His life had been so cold, so meaningless before…before her.  Like a warm breeze she had subtly changed him…warmed him.

But he had been too stubborn to notice.  Too proud to acknowledge the emotions she stirred in him, emotions he had vowed to never feel again.

Such things made a person weak, they made a person vulnerable.  He was not a weak man.  Powerful, cold and calculating.  These were the words that described him.  These were the words his enemies and allies whispered to each other behind his back.  Friend or foe he was respected, he was revered…he was feared.

That was the way he wanted it, that was the way he had chosen to lead his life.  A life of solitude, a life of power.  This was what he had wanted, what he fought for, a life he had spent centuries building.

Yet it taken only a moment for it all to change, it had only taken an instant for his walls to crumble.

She had beaten him.  With one look, one fiery gaze of defiance, she had completely destroyed him.  And there was no turning back.

She had stood there, her raven hair whipping furiously about her face, her cheeks flaming in anger, her eyes hardened in determination.  She stood, with an arrow in hand, and dared to prevent him from achieving the object of his greatest desire.

The Tetsusaiga.  The omnipotent fang of his Father.  It should have been his.  

But her arrow could have killed him.  The thought that a mere human held the power to destroy him disgusted him, but it was true nonetheless.  As long as she stood there, between him and the worthless hanyou that possessed the sword, his dream of acquiring the fang would be just out of his reach.

He remembered the white hot fury that coursed through his body, the beast in him had taken over and it wanted blood, her blood.  But through the red haze of anger he saw something, a flash in her eyes, a softening.  Through the crimson of hatred he saw something that would change him forever.

Sympathy…for him.  A demon who was moments away from killing her.  To a man whose heart had long ago ceased feeling, the depth of her compassion was unfathomable and unbelievable.

If he had to pick one instant, the one individual moment in time that he fell…it would have had to have been then.

Granted the fall had been small, imperceptible really in its magnitude.  But for a man who had stood alone on his precipice of power it was devastating, and it nearly broke him.

To feel his frozen heart begin to slowly beat with life again was shocking, and it was painful.

She had made him forget.  In slow, but determined steps, he walked over to her.  Heedless of the arrow still poised at his chest.  He stopped when he felt the tip of the arrow through his clothes.

Her eyes widened, yet she did not run, she did not scream.  She wasn't afraid.  And he found he didn't want her fear.  The implications of that realization left him reeling and unsure.

He hated her at that moment, hated her for evoking such weaknesses, such vulnerabilities.

He extended one clawed hand and cupped her cheek, on finger stroked the welcoming softness of her skin, a tender caress that belied the lethal power raging in his blood.

Then she had done the most remarkable thing.  She had dropped her arrow, the only thing stopping him from snapping her neck, the only thing keeping him from spilling her blood.  

In a moment that would forever be emblazoned in his memory, and his heart, she had timidly extended her own hand.  So fragile compared to his, and mimicking his own actions, cupped his cheek.  

The warmth of her fingers burned his skin; the contact of her skin on his was unexpected.  She traced the magenta stripes on his cheek in wonder and fascination.

And then she smiled…a purely beautiful smile that touched his soul.

She smiled for him.

_Just a thought to know I had it all_

He had left her standing there that day, intent on never seeing her again, even if it meant abandoning his quest for the Tetsusaiga.  

Some things were more important, his power, his control, his sanity, these were more important, more vital.  Or so he had believed.

But it seemed fate had a different plan in mind, a different road for him to travel.  And even he, the almighty Sesshoumaru, could not change the course of fate.

His resolve to stay away from the miko had lasted for awhile.  He had begun to forget that day; he had begun to forget the look in her eyes and the touch of her skin.  The beating of his heart began to slow, the warmth that had crept into his soul chilled once more.

He was alone once more.  

Until the time had come to destroy him, to destroy the evil that threatened to take over their world, threatened to destroy it.

Naraku.  It was ironic really that the one man who so violently sought their death, his death, was the one to bring him closer to her, closer to living.

As much as his pride protested, he knew could not destroy the evil hanyou on his own, so he had approached the traveling group of his half brother, of her.

Upon the sight of him, his overeager half brother had immediately brandished his sword, intent on attacking him.

But she had stopped him, with one magical word she had prevented Inu Yasha, to whom she had, in the past, proven to be fiercely loyal to.

But something had changed.  He remembered.  It was subtle, nearly invisible, but obvious to his perceptive eyes.

It took him awhile to put a name to the difference in her, but then it dawned on him, the hardness of her eyes, the paleness of her face, and the sadness, the overwhelming grief that surrounded her.

She was cold.  That had been it, the fire that had once raged so brightly, so fiercely within her had diminished, it had been extinguished.  And he knew it was because of Inu Yasha.

He recalled the raging hatred he felt at that moment for his heartless half brother, a hatred that had nothing to do with his inheritance and everything to do with the beautiful miko he had so carelessly tossed aside.

And for what?  A heap of decayed flesh and rotting bones?  Because in that group he sought out he had discovered a newer member, the dead miko Inu Yasha had nearly died for long ago.  She had joined their ranks, and she blinded his idiotic brother to the treasure that he had held for so long.  Because although she had returned, she would never be the same woman she had once been, Kikyou, Inu Yasha's first love, was dead, and she would never love him again.

But her, Kikyou's reincarnate, Kagome, had loved Inu Yasha from the beginning.  She had loved him freely, openly, and honestly.  Now she was paying for it.

Then she had spoken, a wondrous lyrical melody flooded his senses.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, say what you have come to say."

Then he had offered his aid and proposed a truce.  He distinctly remembered the way her head had cocked to the side, as if she were weighing the truth of his words.  He remembered the slight and quick nod of her head as she silently accepted his offer.

Once Kagome had voiced her own acceptance the rest of the group was quick to join in, seemingly willing to trust her judgment.

And that was how he had come to travel with the rag-tag group, that was how he broke his vow.

And then one night, the desperate hold he held on his vow was shattered, any semblance of it scattered to the four winds.

He hadn't known she was there.  He had only sought the solace of solitude, not knowing that she sought the same thing.

Beneath the cover of darkness he held her while she cried.  The moon the only witness to his first act of compassion.

He could still feel her.  The silkiness of her hair as it brushed against his chin, the wetness of her tears as they fell on his hand, and the softness of her body as it trembled in grief.

Her sadness was beautiful, it captivated him, tempted him.  He held her for hours, letting her weep, letting her mourn.

Maybe, just maybe, she could cry for the both of them.

As the battle drew near an uneasy bond had formed, not between demon and miko, not between ally and friend, but between man and woman.

_Do you still remember me?_

_How could you forget?_

She had gone.  Back to her world, back to her time.  She had returned to a place where she knew she would be loved.

The defeat of Naraku had proven to be anti-climatic.  Almost a disappointment, he had been defeated so easily.  The evil of the hanyou had been no match for the sheer hatred and desire for revenge of the individuals who fought him. 

She had dealt the final blow.  In blinding wave of pink she had purified him, erased his black existence from their world.

He no longer had a reason to stay, no longer had an excuse to be near her.

She had made her wish on the sacred jewel.  A pure, unselfish wish that ensured its destruction.

A soul.  She had wished for a soul for her incarnate.  A woman, she said, who had suffered enough, a woman who deserved peace and happiness with the only one she had ever loved.

Inu Yasha and Kikyou.  Together once more, it was destiny, their joining had been destined she had reasoned.  No matter how much it hurt or how much it cost her to make that wish she had done it.  She had done it with resolve; she had done it with bravery.

That was when he knew.  That was he knew that for the rest of his life there would always be one constant, one truth in his life.

He loved her.

_You're everything I need; I'm out here on a ledge_

And now he stood, on the edge of the precipice, the edge of the mountain he had built so long ago, ready to jump, ready to fall.

She was worth the risk, she was worth the pain.

For so long he had traveled alone, his world a lonely prison, one he knowingly created.  He had once believed he didn't need anything, he didn't need anyone.  But it had all been a lie. 

He needed her.  She brought color into his world.  Because of her he appreciated those first bright colors of spring, the smoky scent of rain, and the vivid pain of heartbreak.

She could never love him.  She could never love the man who hid behind a stony mask of indifference. 

She could never love him because she would never know that he loved her.

_There are no words for me to say_

_And too much to regret_

Indeed, there was nothing he could say to her; nothing he could do to erase the grief that still lingered in her eyes, the pain that seemed to haunt her.

He had tried, a million times, to put words to the thoughts that crowed his mind and screamed for release.  But every time he thought he had found the perfect phrasing and the courage to speak it out loud he would catch her, glancing wistfully at the happy couple who were so in love.  The happy couple she had created.

So he kept his words to himself, believing that she still longed for him, Inu Yasha.  All this time he kept quiet, never knowing that she didn't wish for the love of his half-brother, never knowing that she simply wished for the one thing he, Sesshoumaru, could have given her.

Love.

So he would watch her leave.  Watch her disappear into the mysterious depths of a well that would take her away from him, 500 years into the future, 500 years out of his reach.

And for the first time in his life he was left to feel the pain of regret.

Perhaps silence wasn't the answer after all.

_You're where I should be_

_Do you remember when?_

It took her leaving for him to realize the fatal error he had made.  He had been too afraid to admit his true feelings, too anxious of what she might say, too scared of the rejection he was sure she would deliver.

But he wasn't too sure anymore.

He had lost her through cowardice.

_I let you go what was I thinking of_

_I'll never know what it's like to love_

Love, an emotion he had finally embraced, a feeling he had finally allowed to melt the ice around his heart and heal the pain in his soul.

But he soon learned that there was no pain that compared to the unbearable ache of unrequited love.

But he, Sesshoumaru, Lord of The Western Lands, was a responsible man.  He took responsibility for his pain; the blame was his and his alone.

He had let her go.

_There's no way, how can I replace_

_A love so strong, when I can't forget your face_

She haunted him.  That face, those eyes, the touch of her skin, the silkiness of her hair.  He carried a picture of her, beautifully angry and defiant, holding an arrow and ready to kill, he held this image in his mind, and in his heart.

His mind refused to erase the beauty of her face.  His heart refused to let go.

She was his first love, she would never be replaced.

_Do you remember you and me?_

_Because I remember everything_

He silently prayed that she had not forgotten, he secretly wished that their time together had meant something to her.  That she remembered it still, that she looked upon it with fondness and a smile.

Was it too much to ask?  Maybe.  But it didn't matter.  He could remember enough for the both of them.

He twirled the dark blue flower between his fingers, a flower whose midnight blue hue reminded him so much of her eyes.

He dropped it into the depths of the well and watched as it slowly fluttered to the bottom, succumbing to the darkness until the brilliant color of it disappeared forever, as she once had.

What was it she had said?  What was it she had told him when he had asked how she found the strength to live, the strength to face each day?

_"Hope, Sesshoumaru-sama, hope that tomorrow will be better than today."_

Yes hope.  Hope gave him the strength to believe that he was not destined to be alone.  It was hope that would ease his pain and prevent his heart from freezing once again.

And it was hope that, in the wake of sadness and grief, gave him the strength to smile.


	2. Eclipse of the Heart

**Eclipse of the Heart**

_Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you never come around_

Loneliness.  That was something Kagome knew, something she understood.

Staring at the computer screen and the college application she was attempting to fill out, Kagome wished there were other things she knew, other lessons she could have learned.  Like math or science.  Important things, painless things, ordinary things.

But it seemed she was destined to live an abnormal life.  Because here she sat, unmotivated to fill out the application, something that by all rights should have been the most important thing in her life right now.

But she was not an ordinary girl.

Inu Yasha.  As that one name came to her mind unbidden, she fought to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over.  She hated that he still had this effect on her, hated that he could still hurt her.

She remembered the first time she had met him.  He had called her by another's name.  That should have been her first clue, her first hint at things to come.  But she had been too naïve, too blinded by the love she developed for him.

She had studiously ignored the signs that followed.  The name that never ceased to fall from his lips, the mysterious disappearances, the secret meetings, and the kiss she had witnessed with her own eyes.

It had been painfully obvious really, she had just refused to see it, refused to acknowledge it, hoping that maybe, just maybe, if she ignored it, then it would just go away.

There had been times when he had looked at her with affection, when she would see something in those eyes that hadn't been there before.  She had survived on these, the small tokens and scraps of love that he threw her way every once in awhile.  A pathetic existence, but she had believed.

Maybe her sheer force of will would make it happen.

But she had been a fool.  Every time he looked at her he saw Kikyou.  She was nothing but a shadow.

And it was that realization that finally broke her heart and shattered her dreams.

He would never love her.  It was a harsh reality, but one she had to accept.

Slowly, but surely, she had begun to change.  It was nothing dramatic, just a few things here and there.  A little less laughter, a little more tears.

Everyday she found it harder to come back.  Everyday she had to find the strength to return to the world that had betrayed her.

Everyday a small, microscopic piece of her died.  The pieces so minuscule they left unnoticed and unmissed.

Do you know what its like to die an invisible to death?  To waste away inch by agonizing inch?  To realize too late what you had lost?

She did.

_Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all my years have gone by_

She had spent so much time there, 500 years in the past, so much time in a world that had never really been hers.  She had gone back, everyday, for him.  And in the end she had lost him.

Was this her fate?  Had she been doomed from the beginning to love one who could never love her?

Even if it was, this wasn't what kept her awake at night; this wasn't what haunted her dreams.  

No, every night, in those fitful moments before sleep claimed her, she wondered if she would ever love again.  She feared that all the love she had to give had been wasted on an unwilling heart.

Would she ever feel it again?  Would her day ever be brightened by the presence of one person?  Would she smile for the happiness of another?

Would love ever color her world again?  She knew the tired clichés, but love had made the roses redder, the sun brighter, the air sweeter. 

She was terrified, because she had tasted its beauty once.  It was too much to ask to hold it in her hands twice.

A miracle, that's what she needed.

But she wasn't sure she believed in them anymore.

_Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes_

The touch of his hand, it was still so real.  She could recall in vivid detail the way it felt to be touched so gently by such a lethal demon.  Who would have thought that such tenderness existed within him?  He had seemed just as surprised as she, just as confused, and just as lost.

Sesshoumaru.

How much sadness had shadowed his life?  How much pain had he been made to endure…alone?  No matter how much power he amassed or how much authority he wielded he had always been alone.

And that was what had sparked her sympathy…that was what had changed him in her eyes.  Was it so inconceivable to show compassion for a heartless demon who had attempted to kill her so many times?

She had once done it for him, for Inu Yasha.

She remembered the shock that lighted his eyes when he saw the sympathy that filled her own.  A shock he thought no one could see.  But she had seen it because she had been looking for it.

Too many people accepted that cold mask of his; too many people believed his icy demeanor was real.  Had anyone ever taken the time to look past it all?

She had touched him as well.  She hadn't believed the coldness he exuded.  And she had been right.  His skin had been so soft, so warm, so real.  She had idly traced one magenta stripe that lined his cheeks.  The mark of privilege, the mark of nobility, the mark of his pain.

He trembled, or had she?  She couldn't remember, but it didn't matter.  That moment had been pure, a crystallized moment in time that belonged solely to them.

His eyes, the brilliant golden depths of them had raged.  At what she wasn't sure, but they raged with an emotion she couldn't decipher, and he couldn't understand.

But when he turned those magnetic orbs on her she had shivered, the intensity of his gaze overwhelmed her.

For the first time in her life she knew what it was like to be seen.

He had been the first to really, truly see her as Kagome and not the shadow of someone else.

_Every now and then I fall apart_

She still remembered that day, not too long after she had returned.  She still remembered the desperate insanity of her actions.

She had been numb, merely going through the motions of her old life.  She had existed in a coma-like state, not seeing, not hearing, not feeling.  But all that time it had been growing inside of her, feeding off of her neglect, the longer she ignored it the bigger it grew, until one day she snapped.

It hadn't taken much really, just an offhanded mention of his name; after all, her younger brother had worshiped him.  And that had been enough.

She had snapped back into the real world, snapped back into feeling.  And it hurt too much.  So she ran, blinded by the tears that were streaming down her face she had ran back, back to the well, back to the place that had started it all.

In her hurry she hadn't felt the stabs of pain as she cut herself on the rough ladder, and she had ignored the jarring impact of the ground as she forcefully fell to her knees.

In a panic ridden frenzy she had wildly dug at the ground.  It had to let her go back because she couldn't live here anymore, she couldn't live alone.

With every handful of dirt the fog of desperation lifted until she sat there, bleeding, broken, and alone.

It had been hard, unbearably difficult to realize that one truth.  There would be no going back.

So she had calmly walked away from the well, quietly left it behind, and never looked back.

It held too many memories that even now she couldn't bring herself to face.

_And I need you now tonight and I need you know more than ever_

_If you only hold me tight, we'll be holding forever_

She wished he could have been there to hold her, to comfort her.  Because he had once.  Beneath the cover of the night he had held her while she grieved, soothed her in silence.

And she longed for him again, longed to feel the heat of his body as it warmed her, yearned for the touch that didn't judge, and yearned to look into those eyes once more, that amber hue that saw so much yet revealed so little.

It was ironic really; ironic that she felt the first stirring of life in her broken heart for a demon, a man who was reputed to have no heart.

But her heart was not hers to command, it did not obey her wishes, it had proved to have a mind of its own.

She had often heard that God worked in mysterious ways.  But perhaps they had gotten it all wrong.  God didn't invoke powerful emotions within her and it wasn't God she wished for at night.

No.  Love worked in mysterious ways.

It wasn't him that she remembered in her dreams, it wasn't him that made her sigh at what could have been.  It wasn't Inu Yasha, with him it was the sorrow and the infinite sadness.  But with the other, with Sesshoumaru it was the tenderness, the mystery, and the regret.

Regret, a bittersweet thing.  The world she had left behind had been dangerous and it had been tragic.  Towards the end he had been her brightness, her happiness.  What if she had stayed, what if she had taken the time to figure out the multitude of feelings jumbled inside.

What if she had looked at him as he had looked at her?  Would things have been different?  Would they have been better?

Regret, so many possibilities, so many what ifs.  

_I don't know what to do and I'm living in the dark_

_I really need you tonight_

Kagome shook her head sadly and walked away from the computer that sat uselessly in front of her.

She wasn't sure she could do this anymore.  Walking outside she took in the peaceful surroundings of the shrine.  A place of serenity, a sanctuary.  All this was lost on her as the turbulent storm raged on inside of her.

Somewhere along the way she had lost herself.  Somewhere along the road she traveled her eternal optimism had turned into a sort of tragic pessimism, somewhere along the way her smiles had become less frequent, and less warm.  Somewhere she had she lost her heart, left it on the road, shattered in a thousand pieces, and hadn't stopped to pick them up again.

Somewhere she had lost hope.

Hope had once given her strength and courage to live.  Hope had allowed her to steadfastly believe that tomorrow would be better, that tomorrow the sun would shine brighter, the sky would be bluer, and the flowers sweeter. 

But somewhere on that road she had left hope behind also.  Another piece of herself, another fragment of the girl she had once been left behind for another aimless wanderer to find.

Or maybe one day she would travel the same road again and find them herself.

_Once upon a time I was falling in love_

_Now I'm only falling apart_

It had become a distant memory, a forgotten dream, that magical time when everything had been new and she had been in love.

A fairytale, a tragic one.

Did she want it again?  Did she dare open her heart to the pain again?  Could she trust?  Could she love?

She didn't like who she had become.  If she kept losing these parts of herself she would become the shadow Inu Yasha had once seen her as, she wouldn't be whole, she wouldn't be Kagome.

And then she knew.  She knew with an absolute certainty that she wanted it again.  She wanted that magic.

Yes she wanted love again.  Love, brilliant as a star yet just as elusive.

Did she have the courage to reach for it once more?

_There's nothing I can do_

_A total eclipse of the heart_

Maybe.

But just now her life would have to go on, she would have to go on. 

She needed time.  Time to rebuild, time to rediscover, time to heal.

She glanced over to the house behind her remembering what she had left there unfinished.  Her future was waiting.

But something prevented her from walking to it, something held her back, something forced her to look back, to look at the well.  Where she had left her past.

_Once upon a time there was light in my life_

_But now there's only love in the dark_

Then she felt it, that irresistible pull that she had long forgotten.

Cautiously she approached the well, hypnotized by its call.

She stepped down the ladder and fought back the memories that threatened to overwhelm her.  Strangely enough it was a pair of golden eyes that kept her sane as she stood at the bottom once again, the remembrance of a soft touch that kept her from running away in panic.

As her eyes adjusted to the black world that surrounded her, a black world that had come to suit her far too well, she saw it.

There it laid, at the bottom of the well, a glistening shard, a beacon in the surrounding darkness.

A piece of the Shikon no Tama that should have been destroyed, that should have ceased to exist with her wish.

But there was no denying that it was there, she could see it, she could feel it.

_Why?_ She wondered.  Why here, why now?

Looking up the ladder that had once led her to the impatient arms of Inu Yasha, Kagome realized that the past was not done with her yet.  Her journey wasn't over.

Her pulse began to quicken and her heart began to race faster.  Anticipation ran rampant through her body.

Reaching out a trembling hand, she grasped the shard.  The power was familiar, the warmth welcoming.

With the determination of the girl who had walked this path so long ago, Kagome strode back to the house.  She had a lot to do.

She was nervous, apprehensive, she was scared.

But this time, this time it would be different.

She was going back, 500 years into the past, going back to a world she thought she had left forever.

And he would be there.  The demon she couldn't forget and the man who still haunted her.

**Review Responses:**

**Unimportant: **Continue…I think I get the message…lol…so continue I shall!

**Sunnygurl357: **Your welcome…and thanks so much for reading it!!!

**Serenity971: **I hope I get a lot of reviews also…that would be wonderful!

**InuGoddess****:  **Well thank you very much!!  I have found a way to make this more than a one shot as you can (hopefully) see!!  I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the last one!

**Sayori-chan****: **Well…I wouldn't want to be kidnapped because then I would miss all my classes and eventually drop out of college…how horrible would that be?  So, out of fear of being kidnapped and being forced to write…which is strangely reminiscent of a certain Stephen King novel…I have written another chapter…yippee!

**Dreamertwin****: **Ok ok ok ok already…I get the point…people want this continued…that makes me so happy!!!  *dances*  Anyways…thank you so much for reading!!

**Caligo**** Origuu:  **As you can (hopefully) see I have decided to continue this…I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

**Chenjen****: **Yes…sad…ok…I will write some more!!!!!


	3. The Colors of the World

**The Colors of the World**

Kagome hefted her yellow backpack over the rim of the well and pulled herself out.  She half expected to see Inu Yasha standing there, arms crossed and yelling at her for being late or some other such trivial thing.

It was the first time she climbed out of the well glad he wasn't there to meet her.

Instead she was greeted with silence; it wasn't eerie or deafening, just silent.  The landscape had changed in her absence.  Still wild in its beauty and unlike anything she had ever seen.

There had been a time when she had wanted nothing more than to live here.  A time when leaving her family behind hadn't been so painful of a prospect if it meant she could live here, where the nights were black and the stars brilliant, where the air was fresh and untainted, and where things were simple.  It had been where he was. 

But things had changed and she had gone home.

Now she was back.

Adjusting the straps of her backpack, Kagome headed down the well worn road that led to Kaede's village.

Would he be there?  Was she strong enough to face him?  Would she fall apart?

Kagome, too preoccupied with the questions that were racing through her head didn't notice the peculiarity of the people as she entered the village.

They were scurrying about, rushing around in a sort of desperate urgency.  If Kagome had bothered to snap herself out of her past induced stupor she would have seen the sheen of panic in their eyes.

Like animals they sensed an impending doom.  And their more primal instincts told them to run.

Kagome finally came back to reality when her feet stopped, out of habit, in front of Kaede's hut.

Once inside she found Kaede, hunched over the fire, evidently in the process of cooking something.  Kagome's stomach growled and her mouth watered.  Kaede had always been the best cook.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and announce her presence, Kagome was knocked over by a speeding blur of orange and brown.  

Hitting the dirt roughly and letting out a _whoosh_ as the wind was knocked out of her, she tried to discern the jumbled mass of fur that was currently hugging her.  The frantic and excited squeals made it impossible for her to determine exactly what the creature was saying.

But then it stopped moving and looked up at her.  Green eyes filled to the brim with tears, not of grief but of joy.  Realization slammed into her, the force of it making her eyes tear, or perhaps they were joyful ones of her own.

In a delighted shriek, she brought the little kit into her arms for a tighter embrace.

Shippou.  She had forgotten how much she had missed him.

"Kagome Kagome Kagome Kagome" The child chanted, as if repeating her name reinforced the fact that she there and real.

"Shippou, I missed you so much" and hugging him closer to her she let the tears spill down her cheeks.  She had told herself she wouldn't cry anymore, but this was different, she was happy.

Reluctantly she let go of Shippou and stood up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes.

"Why did you go?"  The small, childish voice asked.  She visibly paled, but she didn't cry.

Leaning down she laid a kiss on his forehead, and brushing a lock of hair out of his eyes she smiled warmly.  "Because I had to."  Now was not the time to relive the past, now was not the time to drudge up old memories that still haunted her.

Turning to face the nearly forgotten woman in the hut Kagome opened her mouth once again to speak to Kaede, but was stopped by the look in her eye.  There was no shock, no surprise at her sudden appearance.  Happiness of course, but something else shadowed the old woman's one eye.

"You knew I was coming."  Kaede nodded her head.

"How?"

Turning to remove whatever it was she was cooking from the fire Kaede stood up.  "I don't know child, I just knew.  There's something new in the air, something heavy, something dangerous, something evil.  Can't you feel it, can't you see it?"  The old woman finished as she pointed outside of the hut.

Kagome walked outside in the direction that Kaede had pointed and took in the actions of the frantic villagers.

Some had packs on their backs and their children in tow; they were leaving; while others were simply running around with no obvious destination or purpose.  

But it wasn't just the people who were being affected she noticed.  The sky had begun to turn a gloomy gray, the dark and ominous clouds above casting a foreboding shadow on the land below.  Once full and luscious trees were left barren, their leaves falling despondently from their branches.  And the flowers, try as she might she could not find one single flower in sight.

It was as if the colors of the world were melting away, slowly fading and melding into one dismal and dreary color.

Something strange was happening.  Something bad.

"This was why you came back.  Specifically why you are here I do not know.  But there is a new evil, darker than before."

Kagome narrowly missed being knocked down by a group of running children.  They were afraid, their fear surrounded them, permeated the air.

"You saved us before child." Kaede continued as she joined Kagome outside.  "You've come back to do it again."

Kagome's only response was to nod.  How much pain would she be made to endure this time around?  Would she survive it?  She would have no one to protect her this time.  No angel with silver hair and golden eyes, no hanyou who possessed a powerful sword meant to protect her.  She would be on her own.

Perhaps that was the most terrifying thought of all.

But she knew she didn't have a choice.  This was her duty, her destiny, these people needed her.

With that resolve in mind Kagome gave another brief nod, a silent acceptance of her newest challenge.  Idly fingering the shard she had hastily stuffed in the pocket of her jeans, Kagome looked at Kaede, a new and sudden realization filling her.  

She realized that they had an even bigger problem, a question that needed to be answered.  

Because Kagome held only one single solitary piece of the Shikon no Tama.  Kaede must have seen the fear in Kagome's eyes because she quickly spoke up.

"What is it child?"  Taking her hand out of her pocket she quietly extended her hand towards Kaede, opening her fist to reveal the shard she held.

Kaede's reaction was instantaneous.  Fear.  Now they were both afraid.

"If you have one piece" Kaede said in a hushed and fearful whisper.

Closing her fist Kagome quickly pocketed the shard once more.  Looking out over the rapidly changing landscape she shivered.  Not because she was cold but from something else.  Something she couldn't name, something she couldn't see.  Yet she knew it was there, watching, waiting.  She had what they wanted.

She had done it before.  She could do it again.

Remembering the half finished sentence Kaede had spoken, Kagome finished the thought that was on both of their minds.

"Then someone else must have the rest."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Inu Yasha sat alone, brooding, as he often did during this time.  The new moon, there was nothing else he could do, nothing safe at least.  One hand clutched the sword at his side, ready to use it at the first sight of danger.  It would have been useless, but it was a habit.

He hated this night, despised the time when he transformed into a full blooded human, hated with every fiber of his being the weakness he became.

There had been a time in his life when he had been willing to become this weakness, had been willing to sacrifice his dream of becoming a full demon for her.  Because he had loved her.

But she, the other woman in his life, had never asked it of him.  Never.

A hand on his shoulder brought him out of the thoughts that had become his constant companion on these nights.

In an absentminded gesture, he reached up and the covered the hand with his own.  He didn't feel what he grasped, but he remembered.

She had tried to comfort him that night.  She had laid one timid and small hand on his shoulder.

And for the first time he had let her.  In silence, he had let her soothe him.

But the person standing behind him wasn't her, wasn't Kagome.  It was Kikyou, his first love, his lost love, and his new love.

Kagome had given him so much and had asked for so little.  It was ironic really that when she had been here all he could see was Kikyou.  And now that she was gone and he had been reunited with the one who had been so brutally taken away from him all he saw was Kagome.

Would this be his curse?  To always have one but yearn for the other?

It had started slowly.  In the beginning he was too wrapped up in Kikyou, too blinded by the miraculous situation they had found themselves in.  A second chance was rare, a gift, and he had fully intended on appreciating it.

But every now and then a stray thought would cross his mind, a stray thought of her.  At first they had been shapeless with no tangible form; the only recognizable feature the midnight blue eyes, eyes that still haunted him.

Then it had gradually increased, the fog of his memory began to fade, the image became clearer, her face filled his mind.

Kagome.  He missed her.  

He remembered that day when it had hit him, so hard and so unexpectedly that he had nearly been brought to his knees.  He had something offhanded, something rude to Kikyou.  Even now he couldn't recall what exactly his words had been.

But he remembered cringing as soon as the words had left his mouth, he remembered bracing his body, preparing himself for the pain he knew was coming.  An apology was already falling off his tongue; he was hoping she would hear it before she launched into her chant that would invariably render him useless until the magic power of that one little word wore off.

He remembered the blank look on Kikyou's face and then her laughter at his strange antics.  She hadn't understood and she still didn't.

Kagome had given her a soul, she had given him Kikyou.  It was what he had wanted, what he had been fighting for since he had learned of the deception.

But as he looked up into her face, into the brown eyes he desperately wished were blue he wondered. 

He wondered if what he had really wanted, what he truly desired, had been in front of him the whole time.

What might have been?  He didn't know the answer to that.  And he never would because he had so carelessly let her go.  

And it was just now starting to hurt.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The trees had been completely and utterly destroyed, smoking black corpses of their former selves. 

Heaps of youkai bodies were strewn about the clearing.  Charred and lifeless, burned beyond recognition, they were shapeless, decaying mounds of flesh and bones.

A fire hadn't done this.  Something else had, something evil.  He could feel it, the overwhelming potency flooded his senses and thickened the air.  It was almost tangible.

Something had stood in this field and destroyed everything around it with a power and a force he did not recognize.

They had missed something.  This, whatever it was, had managed to elude them, deceive them.

Had Naraku been merely a diversion?  Merely an illusion created by this new creature to give it time to hatch its own devious plan?

He couldn't say how he knew.  He just did.  Something was changing; something was growing, a new danger, a new evil.  He felt it, and he smelled it.  The scent that mingled with the smoke, a scent that was vaguely familiar, it tickled his nose and nagged his brain, yet he couldn't place it.

Sesshoumaru let his golden gaze fall across the broken landscape one more time before quietly taking his leave.  He walked away from the clearing with a sense of unease and urgency.

The world was on the brink of war.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As soon as the demon lord disappeared from sight a cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light.  The dark folds of the cloth hid its features and distorted its shape.

It walked stealthily through the destruction, heedless of the scorched ground and steaming corpses.

It had a purpose, a goal, a dream, and nothing would get in its way.  Soon it would have the power, soon it would have everything.  

But not yet. 

Because around its neck, masked beneath the black layers of cloth hid the pink glow of a nearly completed Shikon no Tama.

Nearly complete, missing one elusive sliver.

**Review Responses:**

**Falling ****Phoenix****: **You danced!!!  YAY!!!  Reviews like yours inspire me to continue writing…really…so thank you so very much!!!  I added some Inu Yasha perspective here for you…I just thought it had to be addressed somehow…I mean he is supposed to be the main character of the series…I'm not sure how that whole situation is going to end up…but we will se!!

**Stacerue****: **Well thank you…I do try!!  I hope this chapter lives up to the previous ones…of course the first two were different…focusing solely on the thoughts of Kagome and Sesshoumaru…now I must move into actual plot…*sigh*  Hope you like it!!

**Dreamertwin****:  **Yes hope…as much as I try to write said fics I invariably end up making them end happy…happy endings are better right?

**Sayori-chan****:**  Sess/Kag fics are my absolute favorite!!!  I'm glad I decided to continue it as well!!  We'll see where it goes…hopefully somewhere good.

**Serenity971:  **Ohhhhh….a trophy…how wonderful would that be??....I could put it right here…on my desk so that I could stare it…maybe it could be my muse….I could show it to people and say "Look…I am good!"….Trophies are nice…LOL.  I try not to bog down my stories with too much detail because when I read books I tend to skip ridiculously detailed things because it just isn't necessary to the plot…So I'm glad you didn't find it boring.

**InuGoddess****:  **That's exactly how I feel…Kagome should get a reward…Everybody stand up and clap…you aren't clapping….why not??...lol….I'm glad you liked it.

**Guardian of The Balance:  **I am proud…and only slightly afraid of your split personality…lol

**Pixiequeen****:**  I really hope they end up together also…that would be nice…


	4. Away From The Sun

**Away From The Sun**

She ran.  They were going to catch her, no matter how fast she ran they would catch her, and she would die.  She was only a little girl after all, who was she outrun a pack of wolves?

She could hear them breathing, she could hear their wild pants as they chased her.  The images of broken and bleeding bodies of villagers fresh her in her mind she pushed herself harder, desperately searching for a strength she would never find.

She didn't want to die, she wanted to see him again, the angel.  That magnificent being she had stumbled upon, long, flowing, silver hair, piercing golden eyes, a demon.  She had known even before she saw the markings on his face that he was a demon, for what human possessed such a beauty?  None she had seen.

He had been injured, he had been lying there, helpless and alone, bleeding and bruised.  She had wanted to help, wanted to help this creature who was too beautiful to be marred in such a way.

So she had approached him with food, too naïve, too innocent to notice the menacing claws, the lethal swords, too blindly trusting to take the dark and narrowed look of his eyes for what it really was, a warning.

She had steadfastly cared for him, not caring that he never spoke or even acknowledged her.  Her joy came from being in his presence and basking in his glory.  

Then one day he had left, just as quietly and just as suddenly as he had come.  She had smiled when she had come upon the clearing he had lain and found it empty.

Her angel had returned to heaven and she had helped.  She had walked away from that field with that hope that maybe one day she would find him again, her mysterious angel.  The memories of those days were hers alone, and she would cherish them all her life.

But she would never see him again, because they were getting closer, their growls getting louder and fiercer as they caught the scent of their prey.

The landscape whizzed by her in a hazy blur, the beauty of the forest she had once admired marred by her tears, tears shed in fear and frustration.  She didn't want to die, not now, not like this.

But it seemed fate didn't care about the wishes of one small child because she tripped, tripped and fell to the ground in an anticlimactic thud.  It was over, they had won.

They were upon her, so close she could see the lust in their beady red eyes; she could feel the heat of their saliva as it dripped on her.  Closing her eyes, she steeled herself for the pain she knew was coming.  Yet even as she heard them tearing into her, even as she knew they were ravishing her body and tearing it apart she felt nothing.  Perhaps fate had heard her desperate prayers after all.

And she died, thinking that maybe she would go to heaven and find her angel. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rin jolted awake and fought away the memories that her haunted her every night.  It had been a nightmare, a memory of her past life, a life before him. 

The adrenaline of the dream caused her to tremble, and a light sheen of sweat coated her body, she still fought, she still ran from them in her dreams.

She felt the agitation of the demon behind her, Ah and Un gently nudged her, as if telling her to go back to sleep.  But she couldn't, not yet.  Looking across the campsite her eyes feverishly swept across the darkened area in search of him.

Her eyes finally fell upon his stoic figure, sitting so calmly against a tree across from her.  To all the world he appeared as if he were sleeping, but she knew better, he was awake, ready to battle any danger that could arise at any moment.

He was powerful, her Sesshoumaru-sama.  As always the sight of him calmed her, the angel of her dreams, the angel who had brought her back to life.

"Sleep Rin" The soft masculine tone of his voice instantly quelled the remaining tremors, and she promptly lay down to do as he commanded.

He would watch her as she slept.  With a smile on her face she fell back into a deep sleep, this time without nightmares because she knew he was there, she knew he would protect her as he always did.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sesshoumaru's keen eyesight followed the rhythmic rise and fall of the small bundle curled into the heat of the dragon.  She was asleep.

Every night it was the same thing.  Every night she would thrash about in her sleep, every night he would hear her frantic moans and desperate pleas as she fought the demons that plagued her still.

He had brought her back to life, erased the pain of her death, but he could not banish those memories, could not make her forget what had killed her.  His hand moved idly to rest on the instrument of her resurrection.

Tenseiga.  He had once hated this sword, despised the fang his father had left him.  Designed to restore life, Sesshoumaru still had no idea what his father was thinking when he had left Tenseiga to him and Tetsusaiga to his half brother.

Sesshoumaru had never had an interest in saving lives; compassion had been a weakness, a character flaw he was proud to lack.  He craved the hunt, thrived on the destruction of those lesser than him.  What he needed, what he desired was power.  The Western Lands were vast and highly coveted; he was under constant threat of attack.

Tetsusaiga should have been his; the ability to kill one hundred demons in one swing would have cemented his power and forever protected his lands.  But it seemed it wasn't meant to be, Tetsusaiga was fated to be with Inu Yasha and Tenseiga, he was beginning to believe there was a greater purpose to his possessing this sword.

His gaze swept over the sleeping form of the small human child he had saved.  A purpose he had yet to understand.

Having a human travel with him should have disgusted him, but she was different.  She hadn't cared that he was a demon, she had smiled as she so carelessly walked into what could have been her death.

Bravery, innocence, and stupidity.  She was a mixture of all three, a mysterious human female who so greatly reminded him of another.  One he had begun to forget.

Rin was so much like her, so much like Kagome.  And he knew that was why he had saved her; he knew that was why he had brought her back to life that day.

He had come across her broken form lying in the middle of the road.  The very image of innocence destroyed by the most basic of evils.  He had to resurrect her, had to for his own sanity because if she could be destroyed, if she could be so mercilessly slaughtered then so could she, Kagome.  He had to believe that she was could survive in this world, had to believe that such purity could prevail in a world shrouded in evil, had to believe her light could shine through the darkness.

So he had brought her back, a symbol of the only one who had ever touched him and now a reminder.  Now he would never forget.

As his eyes scanned the surrounding darkness for any hint of danger his thoughts turned and took on a different subject.

He could feel it, closing in, surrounding them more each day.  It was spreading across the land like a virus, infecting everything it encountered, changing it for the bad.

He had been hunting it down, tracing the scent he had caught so faintly in that charred field.  But it seemed to be everywhere and in everything making the source of it impossible to discern.

It wanted something.  That much was clear.  The way it invaded every little space, the way it was rapidly blanketing the land, slowly and methodically.  It definitely wanted something.

What, he did not know, but he did know this.  Whatever this evil was, this creature, was merely setting the stage, preparing.

Once it gained what it sought it would be unstoppable.  It was instinctive, this understanding of its great power, this feeling of its omnipotence.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed in determination.  He would not allow it to seize power, would not allow get what it wanted.  Not now, not ever.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two graceful hands reverently traced the curves of the Shikon no Tama.  Obsidian eyes gazed longingly at the pink jewel.  The crystalline depths promised such power and held captive such wonderful dreams.  Dreams that could become reality.

One more piece and it would be complete, one more piece and hate would rain down upon the pathetic world, wipe it clean.

She had come back, the mysterious girl from the future.  She held the key; she held the last fragment of the jewel.  The Shikon no Tama had foreseen her return, had known she would carry that last little sliver.

The keeper of the jewel looked down upon the burning village, the flames giving the night a soft orange glow.  Disgusted, the figure turned away, the satisfaction of death slowly fading.  She had not been there, every hut had been searched, no stone left unturned, and she had not been there, it had not been there.

So the village had been burned, its usefulness had long past expired, one by one the creature was destroying any place the girl could seek for shelter.  It would turn the world into a barren and desolate land; destroy everything until all that was left was blackness and death and her.  She wouldn't be able to hide then.

The fragment called to the creature, but the piece was too small to do anything more than alert the figure to its presence and nothing else.  

The girl was infuriating.  She was only human, a tiny slip of a girl, yet her presence effectively blocked all attempts, hindered its progress, prevented its success.

She had powerful friends, but they could easily be defeated for they each had a weakness that could be exploited.  But she was different, her weaknesses were her strengths.

It walked steadily through the forest, its hate for the miko growing more powerful with each step.  Soundlessly it traveled through the dense woods until its next destination came into sight.

The creature sighed in resignation, another village, another search that would no doubt prove fruitless.  As the dwelling came into view the figure saw clearly the faces of the humans that wandered about.  Disgusting creatures, their smell reached its sensitive nose, causing the figure to frown in distaste.  It could smell the tangy stench of their sweat and the putrid scent of their rotting flesh.  They were all dying; why not help them reach that inevitable end a little sooner?

The creature stopped at the edge of the town, it had servants for such menial tasks as this search.  So it sent them out, they glimmered in the night yet remained invisible to the humans that remained unaware of their impending death.

In the end it would be blamed.  The shrouded figure knew this, in the end the meaningless deaths of these insignificant creatures would be placed on its own head.  But really it was her fault.

If only she had stayed away, if only she hadn't stood its in way, if only that last piece had landed in the figure's hands instead of hers.

Soon the silence was broken by a terrified scream.  It smiled in pure pleasure.  The first scream was always the best, that first sound of terror before the ensuing chaos.  It was truly beautiful.  All too soon the screaming stopped, all too soon the air was thickened by the sweetly scent of blood, all too soon a fiery blaze scarred the darkness of the night.

The creature's soldiers came rushing back.  It hadn't been there.

This was becoming boring, tedious, night after night, always the same thing.  But the hooded figure forged on, in the distance the first stray strands of light were beginning to appear.  The sun would be rising soon and the creature would have to disappear, fade away into the shadows until it could begin its search anew with the fall of the night.  

But for now it had enough time, enough time for another village, another search, and another massacre.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 A small child, swathed in white held a mirror which reflected the smoldering ashes of a village and the slow departure of a cloaked figure.

"Who is that?" Asked another, a woman with red eyes and a feather in her hair.

"Evil" came the soft whisper of the child "it follows the night, disappears with the light and is forced to take a different form.  Its evil thrives in the dark."

Kagura silently contemplated the girl's enigmatic reply.  For one terrifying moment she had thought he was back, she had thought Naraku had come back to life, come back to taunt her.  

Her heart was his no longer, his hold upon it relinquished upon his destruction.  She had the miko to thank for that, though she would never admit it out loud.

She roamed the land aimlessly now with her sister Kanna.  Nowhere were they accepted, they did not belong anywhere.  To demons and humans alike they had been the henchmen of Naraku and were never to be trusted.

But the truth was that they had merely been puppets.  He had held their hearts in his hand and fear of death gave him power over them.

For so long she had been a slave to evil, for so long she had been denied choice, denied freedom.  But not anymore.

Kagura held out her hand, silently gesturing for Kanna to take it.  Reaching up she drew the feather out of her hair and in a flash they were soaring through the sky.

She had a debt to pay.

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**Review Responses:**

**jadedinnocent****:  **You know…I'm feeling pretty vindictive right now myself…but we will see if it lasts…there is nothing more gratifying than to know that your work affects someone…so THANK YOU!!...really…and I hope you continue to read!

**queenanneus****:  **Thank you!  I can't wait to find out more about this story either…wait…I'm writing this…hmmmm…I should already know…lol…hope you enjoy the new chapter!

**Light-of-Halo:  **Rin is definitely his sanity…and I am so happy you like my work so much!  I would hate to let down anyone so here is another chapter…enjoy!!!

**serenity971:  **Wow…I'm impressed…your brother actually listens to you…amazing…thank you!

**Falling phoenix:  **Yes…despite my deepest wishes this plot is getting more complex with every word!!  It has a mind of its own!  I will of course continue and eventually I will explain myself :p

**InuGoddess****:  **Yay for clapping!!  I'm excited about the new story that is about to unfold also…and yes Inu Yasha is definitely stupid.

**Wake-Robin: ** Ok…I'll update…thank you!!!!!

**Sayori-chan****:  **Yes Inu Yasha is definitely missing Kagome…I find it hard to believe that after all they had gone through together that Inu Yasha could NOT have feelings for her…so I just had to make him miss her!!!  Hope you enjoy the new chapter!


	5. Full Circle

**Full Circle**

* * *

"_Why her?"_

"_Because I loved her first"_

"_And me? When did you love me?"_

* * *

Hell. That's what this was. That was what she had decided. She was in hell.

The beautiful land Kagome had once fallen in love was now black, burned, and lifeless. Victim to the ruthless savagery of an evil that had yet to reveal itself. It was there, hiding in the shadows, waiting, watching.

Kagome never thought that after all this time she would be back here again. Back here to once more reassemble the Shikon no Tama. A fated jewel which destroyed so many lives, including her own.

She too was waiting. Waiting for that familiar tug, that hypnotizing call that would lead her to the treasure she sought. It was all to familiar this situation she found herself in, too painful in the memories it evoked. This era was filled with the ghosts of another lifetime, and the pain she still hadn't forgotten. He hadn't chosen her, had never intended to. She knew that know, had always known.

Her heart had just refused to believe.

But she was back in the place she had sworn to forget, and it was the past all over again except this time she was alone.

Alone.

Perhaps it was for the best, perhaps it was better that this time there would be no one to worry about, no golden eyes to watch her during the day, and haunt her each night.

Except she was haunted. Haunted still by a pair of golden eyes she could not forget. Haunted and terrified by a man she had believed she would never see again. But fate had intervened, took her life and flipped it upside down.

Now here she was again, a human, a miko, a woman so out of place in an ancient world which desperately needed her help. She had saved it once, she had tasted that intoxicating power, and once upon a time she had been revered by all.

Yet here she was, terrified as she trudged through the blackened land, terrified because she knew that somewhere there was a silver haired demon patrolling his lands. A powerful lord who had once held her in the stillness of the night and spoke so softly.

She was terrified, what would she see when she looked into those golden eyes again?

* * *

"_He hurt you"_

"_Yes"_

"_He's stupid"_

"_Yes"_

"_You love him"_

"_Yes"_

* * *

Screams. That's what he heard, all that he had heard every night for weeks now. They were blood-curdling terror filled screams of death.

Sesshoumaru fought the urge to hunt down the evil causing such chaos. He was not an irrational person, he would not rush into a fight without knowing first who his opponent was.

But it was hard, to sit idly by while so many died. But to fight now was a risk he could not afford, no matter how much he longed to rush headlong through the night with a sword in hand and fury in his eyes.

But for the first time in his life he wanted to, wanted to be irrational, wanted to act on his emotions and damn the consequences. Once, not long ago he wouldn't have cared what happened to this world, wouldn't have cared what happened to those who lived beneath him.

But now he cared.

Rin. She was just a child, harmless, defenseless, innocent. If this world was destroyed, tainted, what would become of her?

She would die. It was a certainty. And he couldn't allow that. Not now, not ever. Once he wouldn't have cared. But things change.

There was only one thing to do. Once, not too long ago the world had faced an omnipotent evil, and once they had devised a way to defeat it.

Putting a hand on the sword at his side, Sesshoumaru turned away from the deafening screams and headed in a different direction. One he hadn't traveled in a long time.

It was time to re-unite old alliances.

* * *

Inu Yasha ran. He could smell it, the new scent which floated on the air. He ran because he had to get to it, had to get to it now.

Lavender and roses, the smell of midnight. That had been _her_ scent, Kagome's. She was back, he knew it, he could feel it. So he ran, ran as fast as he could to the tiny old village, ran, not bothering to stop until he came to the surprised face of an old woman.

Kaede.

"Where is she?" Inu Yasha demanded impatiently. Not caring that the last time he had seen Kagome he had broken her heart, not caring that the last time he had seen her there had been tears in her eyes. All he cared about was the fact that she was back and all his impatient and stubborn heart knew was that he wanted to, had to see her again.

But Kaede just shook her head as if to say he was too late.

"Kaede I..." Inu Yasha began, as if to explain the past but not exactly sure what he would say. What could he say?

"I know"

"I made a mistake"

"And you cannot change it" Kaede said as she reached for her bow and arrows.

"What are you doing?" Inu Yasha asked, suddenly realizing she was not the only one reaching for a weapon in this once peaceful village.

"I'm preparing for a war Inu Yasha, and you should as well"

"But-"Inu Yasha began frantically as Kaede walked away, still needing an answer from the old woman.

"She is gone Inu Yasha" Kaede snapped, clearly tired of the hanyou's interruptions. She turned around to face the half demon. Seeing the quick flash of pain in his eyes she finished in a softer tone.

"She was always yours, you let her go, and you cannot change that. The past is the past Inu Yasha, but the future is not too far and it is time to fight."

* * *

"Miko"

Kagome spun around, sleeping bag in hand and met the fiery red eyes of her former enemy.

Kagura.

So it had begun. Kagome glanced to her left where she had foolishly left her only weapon, her bow and arrows, lying against a tree. Some things never changed.

"You will not need those miko, I come in peace" Kagura said, clearly reading Kagome's desperate glance to her useless weapons.

Kagome hesitated with her next words, not sure what to say, not sure what to believe. Kagura had been a formidable enemy, she had almost killed her and her friends many times. And now, now she was claiming to come in peace, could she be trusted?

"Why?" Kagome asked, needing to know what would have persuaded the wind sorceress to seek her out with no violent intentions.

Kagura merely smiled, an action which drastically changed her features, when she smiled she almost looked friendly, when she smiled she almost looked like any other woman Kagome might encounter on her journey.

"Because you killed him" Kagome heard her say, and then she knew. Kagura was just a woman. A battered and bruised woman tasting freedom for the first time, a lonely woman who had finally escaped the ruthless hand of an evil master.

Naraku. Kagura had been a prisoner.

"I want to help" Kagura said suddenly, snapping Kagome out of her thoughts.

"You know what I am doing?" Of course she did, Kagome thought. It was too overpowering, the nightmare that was slowly taking over the land, it was everywhere, in everything.

Kagome studied the stoic demon who stood before, those eerie red eyes, the feather in the hair, the powerful hands lying restlessly at her sides. She wanted to fight. Kagome could see the desire in her eyes, the rage tightly controlled.

She wanted to fight on her own, Kagome realized. Kagura wanted to fight without a master controlling her and she wanted revenge. Revenge she couldn't have, for Naraku was already dead. But to pick her own battles and fight them, to align herself with a powerful miko once hated by her former master, to live her own life, that was revenge enough. Would have to be, and that Kagome could understand.

So Kagome simply set down her sleeping bag and began to lay it out. Her silent acceptance of her new ally. Behind her Kagura let out a sigh, as if she had been holding her breath while Kagome contemplated her answer, and then she spoke.

"This new evil, it's not what you think"

Kagome spun around quickly once more. A million questions already running through her mind. What did Kagura know? What had she heard? What had she seen?

"Then what is it?" Kagome demanded.

"It's worse"

* * *

Sesshoumaru walked into the old human village and was met with chaos. Men frantically collecting spears, swords, bows and arrows, and whatever other weapons they could find and women collecting the children and food and abandoning their homes.

They were preparing for war. Perhaps humans weren't as stupid as he once believed. They would die. He knew this. They were insignificant, weak, useless. They would be the first. They had to know this, had to know that their strength was not a match for the evil now growing. They had to sense that their death was imminent and inescapable.

He knew that they knew this, because he could smell the fear and the desperation. Yet still they fought, still they tried, still they believed that maybe they could save themselves.

Perhaps there was some dignity in the human race after all.

At the edge of town Sesshoumaru found what he had come looking for. Standing there, alone as people rushed by him, was the silent figure of his half brother.

Inu Yasha. Once Sesshoumaru had hated him. Hated him for his weakness. Hated him for the life he lived and the passion with which he lived it.

Envy. Such a disgusting emotion, pitiful. Yet he, the almighty Lord of The West felt it nonetheless.

But things change, people change, Sesshoumaru changed. Changed by the same hand that had saved Inu Yasha. And perhaps that was why he no longer hated his younger brother. They were tied together, bound by their common longing for something they desperately wanted, needed, but could never have. She had touched them both.

Sesshoumaru stopped beside the still figure of his brother and they both watched the madness around them.

"Inu Yasha" Sesshoumaru said, breaking the silence.

"Sesshoumaru"

"Are you ready?"

"Yes" Inu Yasha replied, cracking his knuckles, already anticipating the battle ahead. And then he turned toward Sesshoumaru, a quiet, solemn look in his eyes.

"She's back you know" And although Inu Yasha did not speak her name Sesshoumaru knew the one of whom he spoke.

Kagome.

"Yes" he replied to his brother's softly spoken statement, his own firm answer startling Inu Yasha.

"But...how?"

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. Now was not the time for this, at this moment Kagome was a distraction neither one of them could afford. But, Sesshoumaru realized, better now than in the midst of a battle.

"I've seen her" he reluctantly admitted, fully expecting an angry outburst from his temperamental brother. But he was surprised when Inu Yasha only shook his head and sighed.

"How is she?" Was his only question.

Sesshoumaru recalled the image of Kagome tiredly hiking across a barren land, her hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes shadowed by fear and grief.

"How is she?" Inu Yasha asked again when Sesshoumaru continued in silence.

"Alone"

* * *

"_Is it lonely?"_

"_What?"_

"_Being you?"_

"_No"_

"_Liar"_


	6. Protect Me From What I Want

**Protect Me From What I Want**

"There is something you fear" Kagome momentarily paused at Kagura's firmly spoken words. Her hesitation was brief, but telling and Kagome desperately hoped that her companion was stupid.

"There is something out there" Kagome gestured with her hand, as if the sudden jerky movement could distract the thoughts of the wind sorceress, "something that wants to destroy _everything_" she finished, hoping that this rather obvious truth would suffice as an explanation for her apparent dread.

But despite all her hopes, Kagura was in fact, not stupid.

"No" Kagura said, clearly seeing through her ruse, "perhaps fear was not quite the right word" she paused, pursing her lips, clearly thinking of the word to best fit the situation.

"Anxious" she finally said after a lengthy silence, "yes, anxious, you've been rather _anxious_ lately, I wish to know why" Kagura finished, turning to look expectantly at the miko who had stopped walking at her softly spoken demand.

Kagome sighed. Really, was she so easy to read? Was there a sign on her forehead reading: _The Closer I Get To Where I Am Going I Want To Run Away…Far Away_? If so she really wanted to know because she would happily replace it with something else, something decidedly more mysterious like: _I Am My Destiny_ or _Through Time I Come _anything that would make her seem like the solemn girl bound by fate she was perpetuated to be rather than the silly, confused, and often times embarrassingly, clumsy girl she really was.

For weeks now they had been traveling, tiredly, agonizingly searching for any rumor, any hint, any clue, no matter how trivial, that would lead to them to the cause of all the madness. But their searching had been fruitless, and exhausting.

So in a brilliant stroke of genius, or perhaps, more aptly, stupidity, Kagome had decided that going at this whole seek-out-the-bad-guy routine would be better accomplished with allies, as they had done once before. Besides, she had rather suddenly realized the idiocy of going at it with only another female, albeit a rather powerful one, at her side. What would they do if they suddenly discovered what they were looking for? How could they, just the two of them, defeat an enemy who destroyed entire villages in single nights?

They couldn't. They would only die. And that would be useless, tragic.

And naturally, Kagura, being the powerful and intelligent youkai that she was had decided to go straight for the strongest ally in their arsenal. And that was why Kagome suddenly found herself heading West, into a land she had not stepped foot in for so long.

Too long. And in those lands, in those lands was a man whose eyes she still dreamed of at night, a man whose voice had become a whisper in her head.

"Don't think I haven't noticed that your sudden preoccupation surfaced almost the moment we decided to seek him out" Kagura said, breaking Kagome out of her silent reverie.

"You're _anxious_ about seeing him" were Kagura's next words.

Kagome turned at her companion's observation and looking into those brilliantly red eyes she realized she could not lie to her, there really was no point, Kagura would find out the truth eventually.

"Yes" was Kagome's succinct response.

"Why? He is an ally, he proved so in the previous battle, he is not a youkai to fear" Kagura said, seemingly attempting to assuage the miko's fears.

Kagome very nearly laughed at the conclusion she had so wrongly come to. Was it really so impossible to believe that there was something more between her and…him than an alliance? At that Kagome did smile because it truly was impossible to believe, even she herself had a hard time believing it over the years.

"I…" Kagome began hesitantly, not quite sure how she was going to explain the complexity that was their relationship, "we were more than allies." Simple, true, yet vague.

"Really?" Kagura questioned, one eyebrow raised in curiosity, her voice hitched in innuendo.

"Not that much more" Kagome replied quickly, blushing furiously at any inference that they had been _that_ involved.

Kagura laughed, the sound throwing Kagome off balance, as it always did. It was disconcerting to hear the woman laugh in amusement instead of the maniacal glee of her former self. But then Kagome had already decided that Kagura had very probably never enjoyed hurting her and her friends. Kagome had deduced that perhaps Kagura had been laughing not at their helplessness, but instead at her own cruel fate.

And that she could understand, because right now, Kagome felt the ridiculous urge to laugh uncontrollably, as if breaking into to sudden bougt of giggles would make facing him again easier, safer.

"We were friends" Kagome said quietly, remembering his face, in the moonlight and the touch of his hand as she cried.

"You were more" Kagura said matter-of-factly.

_So much more._

"And all those years ago" Kagura continued on when Kagome did not respond, "all those years ago you told him goodbye, and it was painful."

God, the way she said it she made sound so clinical, so simple, when it was anything but simple.

"_I don't want to leave" Kagome whispered, knowing he heard her helpless plea and not caring that it made her sound childish. She didn't want to leave, and that was the truth._

"_You do not belong here" he said so calmly, resolutely, as if he were stating a foregone conclusion._

_Which he was, she did not belong here, but his words hurt nonetheless. Of all the things he could have said, of all the things…he chose those words, so impersonal._

_So true._

"_No I don't" she finally conceded on a broken whimper. He may be right, but that did not meant she had to like it, and she didn't, she detested the fact that beyond the well was a family desperately praying for her safe return, obligations, responsibilities she could not run from._

_And she was a woman of honor, a quality which he acknowledged, respected. And it was because of that respect that she turned away from him. Saying goodbye was impossible, but saying it to his face was painful._

_She put her hand on the edge of the well, knowing this was the last time her feet would touch the earth of the past, knowing that she would never see those golden eyes again except in her dreams._

_And as she jumped into that murky abyss, into an uncertain future, she desperately prayed that he would do her just one small favor._

_She desperately wished that he would just remember her._

"No" Kagome said as she chased away memories she had never forgotten, "I never told him goodbye."

"No?"

"I told him to remember"

"And?" Kagura questioned, clearly confused, waiting perhaps for elaboration on why telling him to "remember" would cause Kagome so much grief now when they were about to see him once more.

"What if…" Kagome whispered, suddenly afraid to voice the fear she had been harboring for so long, "what if he doesn't remember?"

And there it was, her fear, the question that had been plaguing her thoughts since the moment they had started in this direction. What if he looked into her eyes and saw nothing? She was human, she was beneath him, she was nothing, did he care that she had left? Would he care that she was back?

Kagome grabbed Kagura's hands, suddenly needing the contact, the comfort. She squeezed the demoness' hands frantically because she wasn't afraid.

She was terrified.

"What if Sesshoumaru doesn't remember me?"

* * *

"Why are we going to your castle again?" Inu Yasha asked impatiently for the umpteenth time that day.

Sesshoumaru mentally sighed. The hanyou was tiring, and supremely irritating. "I will not answer that question again"

"Feh. I don't see why we have to go to _your_ castle to gather the other Lords. Why don't we just go to them? It would be faster than making the trek first to your castle and then waiting for the others to arrive." Inu Yasha said as they walked through the dense foliage that was the boundary of the Western Lands.

Sesshoumaru merely looked at him, having already pointed out the flaws in such a rash plan earlier.

"Yeah yeah" Inu Yasha muttered, "the Lords come to _you_, not you to them, you really are arrogant" Inu Yasha observed.

"I've earned it" Sesshoumaru replied, clearly bored with the entire conversation.

"And I haven't?" Inu Yasha yelled defensively.

"No"

"Keh"

And then there was silence. Sesshoumaru was infinitely glad the hanyou had finally decided to shut up and cease with his inane and idiotic questions. He was rapidly regretting his decision to seek Inu Yasha out as an ally. The whelp was impudent and highly irritating.

But Sesshoumaru was smart, he could not defeat such a powerful, and as yet unknown foe on his own. Practicality demanded the hanyou's participation, logic called for the strength of the other youkai Lords as well.

Numbers would be the key to victory in the impending war because while their opponent was most surly immensely powerful, he was still only one.

And one could be defeated by many. So he had summoned them all, friend or foe they would reply to his summons because they had a vested interest in his proposition, staying alive.

There was one he had neglected to summon, one he had conveniently overlooked in his brilliant plan of attack. But that he would not dwell on, that he would deal with when the time came.

"Why have you not talked to her?" came Inu Yasha's sudden question. Sesshoumaru was struck by the hanyou's apparent insight, the question coming at the exact moment that he was thinking of the woman in question.

"I do not know of whom you speak" Sesshoumaru said flatly, hoping to derail the direction the conversation was taking. But his half brother was stubborn.

"You should talk to her you know" Inu Yasha said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"She was your traveling companion, _Inu Yasha_, you talk to her" Sesshoumaru replied, emphasizing the hanyou's name, a subtle warning for the younger sibling to cease talking.

But Inu Yasha was dense and he didn't quite catch the dark warning in Sesshoumaru's voice, because he forged on, heedless of the raising ire of his elder brother.

"She doesn't want to talk to me, she wants to talk to you" Inu Yasha said on a sigh, resigned to the fact that the miko in question who had once pledged her everlasting loyalty to him, had moved on.

And Inu Yasha suddenly thought back to Kikyou, a flesh and blood woman whom he had left with Kaede and he wondered, not for the first time, if it had all been worth it and he wondered idly, if given a second chance, he would follow the same path, choose the same woman.

"She is a distraction" Sesshoumaru finally said, breaking Inu Yasha's musings. And Inu Yasha suddenly felt a little bit sad for the man his brother had become.

A distraction? It was sad when the one person you could never forget could only be described as a distraction. And yes Inu Yasha could see it, despite the immaturity of his actions, his childlike ignorance he still _knew._ It was there, in the undeniable tension, the palpable chemistry that ignited when they were around each other. She had never looked at him like that, and Sesshoumaru, well Sesshoumaru had never _looked_ at someone and seen something other than their strengths and weaknesses.

"Not everything has to be so black and white" Inu Yasha pointed out, knowing that Sesshoumaru was instinctively avoiding her simply because he could not understand her, could not predict her, and to a man like him, a man of control, of precision, that was perhaps more dangerous than him brandishing a transformed Tetsusgia with intent to kill.

"It is the only way to survive, the only way to defeat your enemy" Calm, he was always so calm, always so sure he was right.

"What about me brother?" Inu Yasha asked.

"What about you?"

"I am an emotional fighter, as you have pointed out on numerous occasions, you call it weakness, yet here I am, alive, when my enemies are not, what do you say to that?"

Sesshoumaru stopped walking at his half brother's question and he turned to face him, golden eyes staring into golden eyes. Fire and ice, eyes of the same molten hue, yet so different.

Fir and ice.

"War, Inu Yasha" Sesshoumaru started, as if that one word was the most obvious explanation in the world, "war is cold, war is impersonal, emotion will get you killed. You've been fighting people hanyou, I've been fighting wars."

And suddenly Inu Yasha realized that he didn't really know his older brother, suddenly he realized that his mark of nobility came with a price. Sesshoumaru was the leader of the Western Lands, he lived in a castle, he was surrounded by wealth, basked in power, and everyday there was someone waiting for you to show weakness, waiting for you to falter.

And then Inu Yasha wondered what it would be like to look into the eyes of an enemy you did not know and kill them, not because they had wronged you in someway, but simply because you had to.

Hell. It had to be hell.

* * *

It was huge. Magnificent in its splendor, in its sheer size. But what else had she expected from the Lord of the Western Lands? A hut in the middle of nowhere? Not for a man like him.

It was a castle, an impenetrable fort oddly surrounded by an array of colorful flowers. It gave the structure a sense of peace, of tranquility, a stark contrast to the battle ready warriors that stood guard of the perimeters. The flowers seemed relatively new, the ground beneath them fresh, as if they had just been planted, making Kagome wonder what would ever possess a man like Sesshoumaru to plant such frivolous things.

Surely it was not for their aesthetic quality.

"He planted flowers" Kagome said aloud. Kagura only looked at her as if she were insane noticing such a thing at time like this. Perhaps she was insane, it would certainly make sense, traveling from the future to the past was sure to make a girl go a little nutty.

"We should make our presence known" Kagura stated, trying to get Kagome to move forward. She was of course right, but Kagome just couldn't seem to make herself move. Ripe with anticipation and fear, her feet seemed to have become glued to the ground she stood on, that is until one heavily armed guard started walking their way.

It was at that point that Kagome decided it was prudent that she move and explain why a human and a youkai were not only traveling together, but what they were doing at the Lord's house.

The guard was tall and imposing in his bulky armor encrusted with the insignia of the Western Land, a crescent moon, just like the one that graced Sesshoumaru's forehead. She had traced it one, outlined that fragile shape with her fingertips. This information however would not help her here.

The guard had his hand on the hilt of his sword, probably in preparation to decapitate her, it would not surprise her if Sesshoumaru, given his widely know disgust for all things human, had a issued a standing order to execute any that stepped foot on his sacred territory.

So Kagome was surprised when the guard merely stopped before her. "Who are you?" was his gruff demand.

Kagome looked frantically at Kagura, what was she supposed to say to that? That she was his _friend?_ Like this guard, who was currently looking at her with thinly veiled contempt, would actually believe that.

"We are allies of the Lord and we wish to speak to him, sir" Kagome said courteously before bowing slightly before the soldier hoping to impress him with her respect. But obviously he was a man not easily impressed.

"Ridiculous" he said with a sneer, "the Lord would never ally himself with a lowly human and a youkai whore" he spat, casting a dirty look at the wind sorceress beside her.

Kagome mentally groaned, and put a restraining hand on Kagura's arm as she prepared to whip out her fan. Now was not the time for a massacre. She could understand the woman's anger at being called such derogatory word, however, they would have a harder time pleading their case to Sesshoumaru if they killed his soldiers, he would not be pleased with that.

Kagome took a step forward, putting herself between Kagura and the guard, hopefully to prevent and bloodshed, and was fully prepared to argue her case, or at least cause enough commotion to make Sesshoumaru come out and see what was going on. But before she could get a word out the guard before her straightened, squared his shoulders, and raised his hand to his brow in a salute.

She turned around automatically, half of her excitedly seeking the person she knew was behind her, the other half desperately wanting to run away, and never look back.

And then he was there, the same as he had always been, perfect. In her shocked haze she fleetingly noticed Inu Yasha trailed behind Sesshoumaru and that neither one of them were brandishing their swords and fighting to the death. But her mind sped right by that significant observation and settled solely on the omnipotent figure of Sesshoumaru.

All the years melted away as the light of recognition, and surprise, shined in his eyes, sparking them to that warm amber color she had once cherished. But that light what was brief, suddenly and ruthlessly chased away and replaced by the icy indifference he used to intimidate, to scare.

For a second there was hope, hope that all those years ago his touch had not been a dream, hope.

Hope was such a useless thing. Because even as her lips were turning up in a smile, even as the rush of seeing him again flowed through her, he was crushing her, forgetting her with words from the past.

"You don't belong here"


End file.
